There's a new opportunity for high school girls to get out in nature for a week of backpacking, research and mentoring and you can help make that happen by having a cold beer on Saturday.Β
GALS β Girls Adventure in Leadership and Science β is a new free science program of the School of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of Arizona that introduces girls to science and the outdoors.Β
The first group of participants will be 12 girls from Desert View High School. They'll go for a week-long backpacking trek on Mt. Lemmon during fall break in October, where they will learn about local ecology, earth science and other topics by exploring with local scientists.
Participants will also work on leadership and critical thinking skills by developing independent projects that include an experiment, collecting data and putting it together to create a presentation.
The last day will be spent at the University of Arizona to learn how to do data manipulation and data analysis. They'll put the information onto a poster and present it to each other and their parents.Β Β
"We're also gonna connect each girl to a mentor, either a female grad student or someone who works in STEM," said Elise Gornish, Cooperative Extension Specialist in Ecological Restoration at the UA. "We're hoping it provides an opportunity to talk about STEM and navigating college applications and thinking about what they want to do in science and jobs...We're really excited."
The scenery on Mount Lemmon is reason enough to go there.Β
After the first excursion, Gornish plans to expand the program to include 24 girls from all over Tucson and Arizona for two-week trips every summer.Β
"We'd really like it to be statewide to make sure we're bringing in the girls who should be brought in, the girls who need it the most from a variety of backgrounds and different places," Gornish said.Β
The trips will be funded by grants and community support so participants can go for free. Funds will cover the entire trip from hiking shoes for the girls to paying grad students to take the girls on the trip.
"The first program we'll probably have volunteers, but we would really like to have enough money to pay grad students to take participants up," Gornish said. "It's important because women in science are more often called upon to do volunteer work, so we don't want to add another layer of responsibility on grad students just because they're female."
GALS is hosting a fundraiser at Dragoon Brewery Saturday, April 14 to help cover some of the costs. Dragoon will donate $1 to GALS for every pint purchased from noon to 10 p.m. Saturday.
Dragoon Brewing Co. will be the second Tucson-area brewery to add an in-house canning line. Above, bartender Brittany Pena watches a 32-ounce βCrowlerβ get topped at Dragoonβs taproom, 1859 W. Grant Road.
If you go
What: GALS fundraiser
When: Saturday, April 14, Noon to 10 p.m.
Where: Dragoon Brewery, 1859 W. Grant Road, suite 111
Details: For every pint you buy, $1 will be donated to GALS
More info: Click here
